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Parramatta & Hay Institutions and the State Welfare System Industrial
& Training Schools were not schools in the familiar sense – they were prisons where harsh repressive conditions
were hidden under the veil of the ‘child-saving’ philosophies which underpinned their establishment. Their primary
concern was the moral salvation of children, not their welfare. Increasing
intervention by the State witnessed the establishment of reformatories, training and industrial schools which were intended
to contain two apparently distinct populations: delinquent children in reformatories, and destitute children in industrial
schools. The fundamental difference between
these two groups initially was the nature of the intervention afforded the child. For the delinquent child action was instigated
in response to his/her conduct whereas it was the status of the neglected child that elicited concern. Eventually this distinction
blurred and the children were identified and treated as one homogenous group, delinquents.(Ritter 1999). Originally, the industrial schools had been controlled by the Chief Secretary’s
Department. When the public education
system was constituted in 1880, they were transferred to the new Department of Public Instruction. Until 1923 with the passing
of the Child Welfare Act and the subsequent formation of the Child Welfare Department, the institution was managed under the
Department of Public Instruction. Staff Superintendents
and deputies were male, and selected because they were tough disciplinarians. Many had worked in boys institutions such as
Tamworth and Gosford bringing with them the harsh disciplinary practices and routines. Parramatta was considered a career
‘stepping stone’ to better paid positions as senior administrative staff in the department. All sub-ordinate staff
officers were female. For instance, Alexander Thompson, started his career as school master on the Nautical Ship Sobroan in 1896 and
by 1907 was the superintendent at Parramatta then in 1929 was head of the Child Welfare Department. William Gordon, who was
in charge at the time of the first 1961 riot, was a former Manager of the Institution for Boys at Tamworth, and before that
had been in charge of the sub-institution at Gosford. Eric Johnston, his deputy, and Gordon Gilford, later deputy at Parramatta,
had similarly been Managers at Tamworth. Destitute & Delinquent Girls Parramatta's
inmate population was made up of girls from all social, ethnic or economic backgrounds. What they shared in common
was a background of abuse or neglect by either parents or by State authorities - many had spent their entire childhood in
a succession of institutions and foster care placements. Between 7 -10% of the institution's population were aboriginal
girls from the Stolen Generations. Girls
were considered in biological terms, with the notion that female delinquency was ‘sexually’ motivated and therefore
harder to control (Chesney-Lind 1997). Anne Summers (1994) argues that these sexist assumptions can be traced back to our convict heritage and maintains that
in the new colony women were colonised; categorised as either damned whores or God’s police, representing either bad
or good. She allows that women were accorded status and a role in social and political affairs in the colony, so long as they
confined that role to ‘moral policing’. These assumptions had significant implications in the distribution of
resources with girls having fewer resources expended on them. There was also little or no recognition that many so called 'uncontrollable' girls were suffering from undiagnosed mental
health conditions such as FAS, Bi-polar, Schizophrenia, Borderline Personality Disorder and Post traumatic Stress Disorder.
These girls were often singled out for additional punishments and many served time at Parramatta's maximum security annex
located in Hay. N.V.I. – and E.M.D Sexual
precocity was a real fear within the societal structure of the era, with girls’ bodies being examined to determine their
moral status. (Howe). Every girl admitted or on remand was submitted an internal examination. In 1914, Walter Bethel referred to the fact that reports submitted after remands
in custody ‘would disclose whether or not (girls) had been sexually immoral’. This would be noted on their file
as ‘NVI’ and reported to the court with the words ‘she is non virgo intacta (NVI) and the appearances suggest
frequent penetration’. Such medical evidence was accepted by courts as evidence of the extent of sexual misbehaviour
and girls were duly charged with Exposed to Moral Danger (E.M.D). Questions
were rarely raised as to who had sexual relations with the girls, some as young as 11, and more importantly evidence suggests
that no one was ever charged with sexual abuse of a girl, rather the prevailing attitude was that girls were responsible and
therefore should be punished.
Training Little
thought was given to the question of whether schools of this kind provided the appropriate treatment for children. Instead,
there was a very rigid disciplinary regime and an inflexible approach to the length of training. The principal aim was to
ensure that each girl’s available time was fully occupied; No real attempt was made in the provision of basic education.
A schoolroom which could accommodate no more than fifteen children operated within the institution and the decision as to
who would be entitled to attend classes was arbitrarily determined by the Superintendent. For the remainder of the girls training
consisted of laundry work, kitchen duties, painting and maintenance work; none of which had any real relevance to job opportunities.
On leaving the institution
girls were once again placed in dire circumstances, there was no welfare payment assistance, no accommodation and no support
services. Many were doubly disadvantaged,
with no education and an institutional record their only resort was to live and work on the streets. Length of Stay Length of stay was arbitrarily determined by such factors as social, political, economic and personal and always at the discretion of the superintendent. It was not uncommon for girls to spend their entire teenage years in the institution.
De personalization: uniform, number and no privacy The routine within the School was inflexible, marked by depersonalization, denial of privacy and invasion of basic rights. On arrival at the institution girls were stripped, searched and issued with a number, a uniform and allocated a dormitory. There was no privacy; no doors on toilets or showers, they didn’t even have a locker to put their personal belongings in. They wore unattractive brown and blue overall*, uncomfortable underwear made of unbleached calico which was not changed daily, and they were not issued with brassieres or sanitary pads. Girls were searched after visitor access, and could only write one letter per week, censored. This reality was not portrayed in media and publications produced by the department rather Parramatta was portrayed as equivalent to a private ‘finishing school’. *The overall had been used for many years, and was not discarded until 1964. In that year, sanitary belts and brassieres were used for the first time, daily changes of underclothes were introduced, and the use of unbleached calico ceased.
 Routine & Control Routines were harsh and oppressive. At Parramatta, up until the mid 1960s, all doors were normally locked so that the passage of girls from one activity to another was habitually interrupted by the routine of unlocking and then locking doors. Staff also were obliged to carry large bunches of keys. Most activities were controlled by bells, and no talking was allowed for much of the day. Body searches were commonplace and there were frequent musters at which girls were counted. Detailed written records were kept of their menstrual activity. ILWA, TID, SML - love & friendship & cry for help Acts of self-mutilation, such as sticking pins in their bodies, usually the thighs and arms, but also ankles,
breasts and even gums were commonplace. A typical example was for a girl to scratch, with a pin, on her arm the initials ILWA,
followed by the initials of another inmate (I love and worship always/adore). ILWA, SML (Send my Love), TID, (Till I Die)
together with girls names, initials or numbers are scratched on walls and surfaces throughout the institution. This practice
was invariably punished. Control, Discipline & Punish Throughout its history unofficial punishments were regularly enforced including standing still for hours, scrubbing
the concrete walkway usually during the night, and scrubbing the wooden floors in the laundry loft with a brick, scrubbing
brush or toothbrush during the day. Even the slightest misdemeanor or resistance could result in a period of time locked up
in isolation or segregation. What was never recorded in any of the official documentation or inquiries were the bashings or
sexual assaults inflicted on the girls by the male staff usually the superintendent or his deputy. These certainly did take
place according to the testimony of many of the girls. Isolation Cells Isolation cells had been located at Parramatta since 1887 with more added in 1897 and again in 1934, on the
order of the Minister Child Welfare. Records indicate that cells were in use for ‘difficult girls’ transferred
from Biloela since 1876. Superintendents were instructed not to award more than twenty-four hours isolated detention with the approval of the Secretary of the Department. Similar restrictions were included in the Child Welfare Act, 1939, which also required that isolated detention be awarded only in ‘exceptional cases’. In 1939, about one girl per week was in isolated detention. However, by the 1950s, it was being used very extensively. Between 1959 and 1966, some 2, girls were charged before the Superintendent, an average of twenty-three per month. In nearly all cases, twenty-four hours isolated detention was awarded, with occasional awards of forty-eight hours. The isolation detention block contained cells about 12 ft square, with small windows set high up in the walls
with a mattress (no bed), a blanket and a toilet bucket. The door was sheet steel with an inspection hatch securely bolted
when not in use. A dim light was kept on at all times. Girls kept in these cells went barefoot, and wore clothes from which
all buttons or hooks were removed. Meals consisted of bread and water or milk. Between 1959-1966, 2160 girls, an average of 23 per month were placed in isolated detention this figure peaked
in 1959 where 53 girls were recorded in isolated detention in November of that year. Segregation Cells Segregation was exactly the same as the formal punishment of isolated detention with the exception that segregation periods far exceeded those for which isolated detention could legally be awarded, the standard period being three weeks. It was not recorded in the punishment books, as the Act required, although a monthly ‘segregation’ return was sent to the Director. Returns for 1959-60 show some quite lengthy periods. For example, one girl was segregated for two periods of 19 and 17 days in early 1959 for indecent behaviour and attempted absconding. It is well known among former inmates that girls were ‘segregated’ for much longer periods. One girl was segregated from 30 October to 10 November, 1958 because she was ‘unrepentant’ after spending 24 hours in isolated detention for pushing a needle into her thigh. Several cells were located in ‘Bethel House’, which stood apart from the main institution in the Training Home and admissions area.
Ormond Training School In 1962 the Department opened a new training school for girls, Ormond, next to the two cottages opened at Thornleigh
in 1947. This brought some relief to Parramatta, where the numbers fell from 162 in 1962 to 131 in 1964, but the relief was
short-lived. By 1966, there were 171 girls at Parramatta and 108 at Ormond. Ormond had isolation cells and
the incidence of this punishment was much the same there as it had been at Parramatta of informal punishment. Pregnancy, Loss and the generational cycle On average 6 percent of the institutions inmates were pregnant. Their State Ward status was equally imposed on their babies, who they were coerced into surrending at birth. Towards the end of their preganacy girls were transferred to the Women’s Hospital or Crown Street where they gave birth and then usually returned to Parramatta. Typically girls returning to Parramatta experienced extreme grief and loss often manifesting as resistant and non compliant behavior which would frequently result in further punishment such as a 'disciplinary' period at the Hay Girls Institution. Sadly, years later many of these 'State babies' would themselves end up in the home.
Riots & Resistence Harsh and punitive disciplinary practices left over from the days of penal settlement remained intact within this institution until its closure in 1974 and were, without exception the underlying cause of every riot that occurred. The first officially investigated riot occurred in 1898 (excerpt from submission below). Revealingly, testimony about conditions and punishments in the institution remain significantly unaltered with the same complaints made by girls in nearly all subsequent inquiries.
“We were not getting treated as we should and we
had nobody to complain to for when we came to the Superintendent and complained, he would take no notice of us and we thought
that by playing up we would go to the Court and be able to tell all we had to say…It was me that struck Miss Daley…I
told her she could not punish me because it [breaking the mangle] was an accident…We are not allowed to speak while
we are working… I had two months locking up and I had to paint four dormitories out and the covered way….and when
we used to get our dinner the cook used to get a dinner worth eating but Miss Leo would send the dinner back and say we were
not worth it…{while in the cells} we had a bed on the floor. There was no bedstead and only one blanket”. Girls also complained that they were punished for lying on their sides or turning over in bed. When questioned
about how long girls were kept in isolation the Superintendent stated that no girls were kept there longer than 48 hours,
stating also that the rioters had been confined this way as well as being caned and their heads shaved. Another form of punishment was ‘standing out’ which involved standing outside perfectly still
for hours every day. One girl who spoke in the dormitory (speaking in dormitories was forbidden) ‘stood out’ for
5 days. For every riot reported another dozen were quelled before they got out of hand. The riots of 1941-42 eventually led to an inquiry presented in June 1943, finding that the school instead of being a place of rehabilitation was a punitive institution. Once again no action was taken.
In January 1961, the Assistant Under Secretary, Alan Thomas, received an anonymous letter which said that the place was in turmoil and asking that the Deputy Superintendent be removed. Thomas disregarded it. A month later, things came to a head when the Deputy Superintendent was suspended for misconduct (he was later dismissed). Within a matter of hours of this event, the first of the riots started when twenty girls climbed on the roof of the hospital block, screaming obscenities and hurling roof tiles at police. They were removed after midnight by the use of fire hoses. The next day an even bigger riot took place, with a hundred girls climbing on the roof, and hundreds of people gathering in the street outside to watch. The girls stripped naked and tore tiles from the roof, smashing windows, destroying furniture and causing thousands of pounds worth of damage. A particularly wild riot occurred ten days later, during which nineteen girls escaped over the wall, using building materials being used to repair the earlier damage. A whole series of riots then took place over the next few months. The response of the Department was coercive. Initially, a special squad of male officers was sent there to keep order. Girls who were inmates at the time later alleged they had been beaten with rubber hoses during the riots.
The
ringleaders were taken before the Children’s Court and sentenced to prison terms ranging from a month to three months.
In the period from March to the end of 1961, thirty-six girls were so dealt with. Some went to prison twice, one girl three
times. As a
result of these events, the Government expedited the construction of additional accommodation at Thornleigh, in order to relieve the pressure of numbers at Parramatta.
At the same time, Hawkins announced that a special institution for girls would be established at Hay.  Hay Girls Institution Hay Girls Institution was gazetted on the 28th July 1961 and by early September girls were transferred
there from Parramatta. It was a place of sadistic, inhumane and extreme discipline that had been modeled on a similar
institution for boys operating since 1945 in Tamworth NSW. Hay was a colonial prison built in 1880 with12 cells (cabins) divided by a central corridor with girls sent there for an ‘official’ term of stay 3 months. The institution held a maximum of 10 girls and operated with a high ratio of staff to inmates.  Girls were transferred to Hay at night accompanied by an escort they were transported by train to Narrandera then to Hay in the back of a lock up van. Life for the girls sent to Hay was hard. On their arrival girls were issued a set of institutional clothes, given routine instructions and had their hair cut short to a de personalized institutional bob. They were then taken to a lock up cell where they were introduced to the regime of hard labour with any thing up to 10 days scrubbing paint from the walls until the brick surface was cleaned and then re painting the cell for the next unfortunate arrival.
The daily routine was monotonous; locked in cells from 7pm to 6am everyday they awoke to the same routine, a routine that did not allow thought, nor feeling, nor acknowledge their humanity. Silence, eyes down, hard labour, unceasing surveillance, constant humiliation and deprivation. Their cabins (cells) were furnished with a single iron frame bed, thin mattress, a blanket, bible and night can. No reading material apart from a bible, no visitors, no mail in or out, every movement monitored, controlled, every response signaled by procedure or order signaling arm raised, await response, respond, wait for order, do not think, only do, keep 6’ distance from all others at all times. Their sentences extended at the whim of the officers, punishments such as ‘practices’ a hundred push ups, a hundred star jumps, marching on the double, marching on the spot endless and unrelenting discipline. In March 2007 the community at Hay welcomed back former inmates of the Girls Institution in a reunion celebrating International Women's Day. Speaking at this event was Senator Andrew Murray who has continued to champion the rights of Australians who experienced institutional or out-of-home care as children.  End of an Era The numbers of girls in institutions continued to rise, however, reaching a peak of 306 in 1970. In 1971, the
vast majority of inmates in NSW institutions spent between seven and twelve months in detention. It was against this increasing emphasis on human rights that the treatment of delinquent girls became a major
public issue. In 1973 there were allegations on the television program This Day Tonight that all girls held in institutions
were routinely given internal vaginal examinations. The Minister, John Waddy, denied this, pointing out that all the girls
referred to were in custody on complaints of exposure to moral danger. However, a statistical analysis of medical examinations
of girls at Minda during 1974, shows that more than ninety per cent included vaginal examination. In fact, this kind of examination
had also been carried out routinely for many years at Parramatta. This phase of the institutions existence ended in 1974 when the New South Wales Department of Child Welfare
and Social Welfare (DCW), following an investigation into allegations of misconduct by staff at PGH and HGH, closed the institution.
The experiences of the girls who were committed to the homes have been largely ignored and there is a lack of public awareness and deficit of information in regard to both institutions.
The girls who were sent to Parramatta in the 100 years the girls’ home operated are the symbolic daughters of the Female Factory women. Like their forebears they were largely victims of circumstance, prejudice and poverty. |
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 Parramatta Female Factory Precinct
Fleet St, North Parramatta NSW Australia
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